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A Framework Consulting ezine
High-Stake Interventions -- New Ideas    Issue 22   April 2008
Don't Give Me a Bligh - The Top Four Excuses of Caribbean Managers
by Francis Wade

Podcast of this issue -- http://fwconsulting.podomatic.com
 


Editorial
In my work across the region, I have worked with many executives, and am often puzzled to discover that they settle for a much lower standard from themselves and others, than their counterparts in developed countries. 

The reasons (or excuses given) are the inspiration of this month's issue of FirstCuts, which I trust that you will find to be suitably provocative.

Until next month,

Francis

P.S. We are working on a series of products related to Time Management, Expat Transitions to Jamaica and Networking for Caribbean managers.  Look for news of their release in the next two months or so.
 
Don't Give Me a Bligh
The Top Four Excuses of Caribbean Managers
 
There are four excuses that I often hear from the lips of Caribbean
executives, and each would benefit from a little examination. When
brought to the light of day, I find that they simply don’t hold water—even though they’re quite difficult to dislodge and it takes absolutely no effort to allow them to continue.

The excuses are as follows:

Excuse #1:    “That’s how these people are.”
Excuse #2:    “We can’t plan that far ahead.”
Excuse #3:    “We can’t expect better … Give them a bligh, man.”
Excuse #4:    “We can’t confront these people.”

Excuse #1: “That’s how these people are.”

Regional executives have explained to me that the people who work in
their companies are different from those in North America, in the rest of the region, uptown, downtown, in the city, of the opposite sex, with more education, with less education, with lighter skin—the list goes on. The executives are convinced that this difference gives managers some sort of “passport” to be abusive.

Executives scoff at the “nonsense” of advice to be more motivating, more empathetic, or a better listener. They argue that “these people” are not to be trusted, and executives point to numerous examples of theft, lateness, and slow work to justify their beliefs— and their subsequent actions.

Executives feel as though they’re at war with their employees—and the goal is to be victorious, regardless of the cost. In the words of one manager, “I don’t care if they leave!”

My analysis is this: These executives simply demonstrate the kind of   behaviour that they say they don’t want, and they expect their employees to have the wherewithal to rise above the executives’ own examples. Michael Carter, who compiled research on the Jamaican workplace in his book Why Workers Won’t Work, indicates that supervisors quickly adopt frames of mind that they resented only months before they were promoted. I think this is because the supervisors simply “follow the leader,” picking up the management behaviour of those above them.

When executives fall into the habit of thinking “That’s how these people are,” and executives think it so frequently that they actually start saying it, they’re on the verge of becoming cynical and bitter.  Nothing  communicates to staff more clearly than that kind of attitude.
Excuse #2:    “We can’t plan that far ahead.”
We live in a very hectic environment here in the region. Our governments have a difficult time providing us with consistent supplies of water, power, transportation, and other essential services. A hurricane can come along at any time and disrupt the best-made plans. Crazy fiscal or monetary policies can do the same.

A riot might also do the same—as can a fire, strike, or surprise
holiday (both Jamaica and Trinidad had impromptu holidays when they
qualified for the World Cup finals in soccer).

Executives compare their business environments with those in developed countries and say, “We can’t make long-term plans because you never know when things will change.”

While there’s no denying that our environment is less stable than that of Toronto or Washington, DC, the comparisons are unfair. Those cities are part of mature economies that have weathered hundreds of years of growing pains.

However, my experience tells me that businesspeople of other developed countries also suffer from disruptions similar to ours. In fact, we need look no further than our own backyard to find examples of men and women who must do business under adverse conditions. But they’ve been successful, regardless of all the conditions described above—and more.

My analysis is this: I fear that the regular refrain serves as an excuse to use practices that every business school and businessperson agrees are simply inferior. While no one can say  that we have first-world conditions, the fact is that some of our businesspeople manage to do well, in spite of what we all face. They make plans—and fulfil them with some regularity—and they wouldn’t ever dare to stop planning.

Their superior skills serve their companies and their stockholders quite well.  At the heart of it, mediocre executives suffer from the belief that their job is to produce results under ideal conditions. They complain as if the situations they face are outside their job description and that it’s simply not fair to be expected to produce results in spite of challenging realities.

The truth is that many of the things they complain about are much worse in many other countries. When they act as if the universe has singled them out for uniquely bad treatment, they profoundly disempower themselves. They simply don’t deserve to be leading companies.


Excuse #3:    “We can’t expect better … Give them a bligh, man.”
In Jamaican (and now Trinidadian) parlance, a “bligh” means a free pass or a second chance. It implies that a certain lack of consequences is attached to actions (or inactions).

For example, a policeman who refrains from ticketing a motorist who
has broken a light is said to be giving him or her a “bligh.”

Recently, two fellow cyclists lost their lives while riding in Kingston.
The first cyclist was hit by a driver who was allegedly drunk, had no license or insurance, and fell asleep at the wheel after his bachelor party. The driver had also supposedly caused another bad accident a mere two weeks before.

The second cyclist lost control when he overtook a car, slowed to avoid the back of a truck, and rode head-on into a car travelling in the opposite direction. He was 19.

In both cases, it struck me that many friends of the first driver and the second rider might have given blighs that allowed these behaviours—and accidents—to happen.

Let’s assume that this is true. In the first case, the driver appears to have been drinking with a group of friends who allowed him to drive home and cause this terrible accident. Also, the fact that he was driving without a license or insurance leads me to think that others gave him blighs that allowed him to be on the road that morning.

In the second case, I personally rode with the cyclist in the past—and I wonder if I could have said something to curb his tendency to ride alone and take risks. It might have saved his life.  Certainly the hundreds of riders who knew him had the same opportunity.

I’ll paraphrase an old proverb: For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For want of a horse, the rider was lost. For want of a rider, the message was lost. For want of the message, the war was lost.

In other words, whenever we give a bligh, or allow a low standard to
slip by, it usually goes unnoticed in the moment. However, in the
modern and complex world in which we live, the consequences are
always felt—even when there’s a significant delay.

I recently spent a couple of nights at the Ritz Carlton in Montego Bay, and I can share with you that they’ve achieved the highest standards of service I’ve seen in a regional hotel. They’re obsessively attentive and allow nothing to slip by—and I have the sense that they do NOT give themselves blighs.

The truth is that the low standards we experience in the region, in so many areas, are created by us—through the number of blighs that we give. We have low expectations, and we allow things to slide in what we think are inconsequential ways that don’t matter.

A few years ago, a badly prepared cricket pitch at Kingston’s Sabina
Park caused a five-day test match to be abandoned after only a few
hours of play. I have no idea what the total cost of that mistake was, but I imagine that it was in the millions.

I can’t recall where the original errors were made, but I’ll bet they were “bligh-driven.” Was it the guy who hired his incompetent cousin onto the ground staff? Was it the teacher who failed to teach a groundsman to follow instructions? Was it the lack of performance over several years that had been allowed to continue unchecked? Or was it the prior week’s warnings that were ignored by those who were “in the know”?

I don’t know the facts, but probably hundreds—if not thousands—of
blighs were given, all of which played a part in causing this fiasco.

My analysis is this: We can each start demanding high standards from
one another, right now. The results would be miraculous.


Excuse #4:    “We can’t confront these people.”
Professionals who decide to enforce standards put themselves in a very uncomfortable position. Going on a “bligh diet” isn’t as easy as it sounds.

First, they have to deal with some historical baggage. The first accusation that’s hurled at people who enforce high standards is that they’re trying to be like “Bakra,” the slave master who reigned over the lives of most of the region’s workers until 1838. Bakra used the threat of the whip, chain, and noose to impose his will.

Professionals who use any hint of force to achieve high standards are likely to re-create that relationship and be treated with fear, covert hostility, and deep anger.

Second, people who stop giving blighs take themselves out of the quiet conspiracy we have here in the Caribbean to “mash dem up.” After hundreds of years of acting out our resentments against management and those in authority, we’ve had less than a hundred years of  self-governance. During slavery, we became masters of doing  nothing—while appearing to do something. Most slaves aspired to add the extra step: learning the art of quiet sabotage and resistance.

Professionals who insist on acting on different premises must realize that they take themselves out of the mainstream, and they’ll probably face fierce opposition.

Third, blighs are favours that our people have used to build relationships. When we had nothing else to give, due to our poverty, we could at least grant one another favours that showed we cared. One favour was to ignore mistakes, errors, and shortcomings.

People who stop granting this particular kind of favour need to
understand that, at first, they may be seen by others as stingy and mean.

This is not to say that they should give up.

It does say that they need to find ways to insist on high standards—
without using Bakra’s force—while being aware of the loss that many
around them will feel when the professional’s behaviour changes.

My analysis is this: I believe this skill can be developed through diligent training and practice. In a prior issue of FirstCuts, I wrote about how managers can use videotaped feedback to improve their skills at conducting “hard to have” conversations. With coaching and help from others, each professional can immeasurably enhance his or her skills.

My high school maths and physics teacher insisted that we achieve
high standards, and he did so without using force or insults. His
comparison of his students to “thoroughbreds” probably wouldn’t go
far in today’s workplace, but his trust in us was certainly
heartfelt.

At the other extreme, I had a grade/prep school teacher who called the students who received  lower scores “damn jackasses” and said they were “no better than the garbage on the street.” She enforced her will with beatings from an 18-inch ruler, probably inspired by Bakra’s violent example that was passed down through the years. (In those days, a ruler was considered mild punishment compared to the cane, which was used at other schools.)

The damage she did to a few hundred students is probably felt today by their children and grandchildren. Some today will swear that it was good for them and that they fully intended to visit some “licks” on their own progeny when their time came to “be in charge.”

To be sure, there were colleagues, administrators, members of the board, and parents who stood aside and gave this teacher a bligh, allowing her to continue the abusive behaviour unchecked.

However, I recall one classmate who hid the teacher’s ruler to prevent it from being used to beat a fellow student. For her efforts, that classmate got a beating with the ruler; this was tragic, but it only underlined her simple act of caring and courage.

Summary
It’s never easy to take yourself out of the mainstream of dysfunctional behaviour and thinking—especially when the excuses I’ve described are widely accepted. There are much more effective ways to enforce high standards with others, and therefore many good reasons to give up the four excuses. It’s up to us, as professionals, to develop skilful means of operating at a higher-than-mediocre standard.

This is the only way for our regional societies to transcend our current performance and allow us to achieve our potential.

Useful Stuff
Tips, Ads and Links
My long-awaited manifesto for a new time management is available for
download at the following link: http://ChangeThis.com/45.04.NewTime
It is steadily moving up the ranks of items on the site, based on its popularity.

We are looking for some input from expats who have moved, or are
moving to Jamaica, on what their needs are or might have been. The
input will help us decide what should be included in 2 e-books that we are writing on the topic.

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